Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gets it.  When asked about the Strait of Hormuz, Bessent notes that yes, things will likely never return to the way they were before; however, there is a distinction that must be applied.

Even if Iran completely acquiesced to all of the most stringent terms and conditions requested by President Trump, they will never again recapture the position they held with the Strait of Hormuz as a chokepoint.

Capital markets respond to risk in the medium and long term; risks are always mitigated.  With the Strait now identified as a strategic risk, the emphasis will be on forever neutralizing that risk and avoiding the issue in the future.  As a consequence, Iran’s strongest point of leverage is disappearing now and will continue to disappear.  WATCH (prompted):

As further explained by James Thorne on X: “By repeatedly signaling its willingness to disrupt the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran hasn’t strengthened its hand, it has accelerated the market’s exit. Capital does not tolerate chokepoints; it routes around them.

Saudi Arabia is expanding its East-West pipeline. The UAE has already built out Fujairah as a bypass. Iraq is revisiting overland export corridors. Every marginal dollar now flows toward redundancy, not reliance. What was once a geopolitical lever is being engineered into irrelevance. Bessent gets it: markets don’t absorb coercion; they arbitrage it away.

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The biggest winner in the Michigan Senate primary was not Abdul El-Sayed, nor was it Republican Mike Rogers. The biggest winner was the background stakeholder who gains the most, the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Mike Rogers previously defended the CIA, FBI and Hillary Clinton State Department from scrutiny in the Benghazi mess that underpinned the entire 2016 election manipulation. {GO DEEP} Mike Rogers was Chair of the SSCI who wrote the fabricated report that covered for Clinton’s Benghazi mess.

Now the IC repays the favor.

Rogers is a shoo-in for a seat on the SSCI as soon as he wins the Michigan Senate Race. Michiganders have too much at home familiarity with the severe slop of Islamism that surrounds them; and while El-Sayed will carry the communist coalition, the daily reality on the ground in Michigan is too close for deflection. This one was well played by the IC.

MICHIGAN – Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s slugfest of a Democratic Senate primary … clinching the nomination in a close race over Rep. Haley Stevens and establishing a Midwest beachhead for a progressive left on the march this midterm cycle.

El-Sayed overcame a nearly $65 million onslaught of outside money and an establishment that had rallied around Stevens. Popular Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Stevens late last month — a move seen as a last-ditch effort to stop a rising El-Sayed.

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Promethean Action PAC puts together another video drawing attention to the connection between pressure on both Hezbollah (Lebanon) and Hamas (Gaza) that is forcing the terrorist networks within both conflict zones to suddenly discuss disarming and a pathway to peace.

Kokinda notes Secretary Bessent’s sanctions and money intercepts against all of the various Iranian financial systems are creating problems for the networks they support.  That is leading to unexpected pressure on the terror networks.

“From Camp David, President Trump framed a reported Hamas disarmament agreement as a breakthrough enabled by pressure on Iran, arguing the regional strategic terrain has shifted. The episode highlights two developments presented as unprecedented: Hamas agreeing to disarm and Israel and Lebanon resuming talks after three decades, both attributed to cutting off Iranian funding for proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Kokinda claims the decisive “weapon” was Treasury action under Secretary Scott Bessent—sanctions, OFAC tools, anti–money laundering measures—described as “economic fury,” including designating over 1,000 Iranian-linked individuals, ships, and companies and disrupting routes through shipping, insurance, and offshore finance. The script also points to the February 19, 2026 launch of the multinational “Board of Peace,” tasked with rebuilding Gaza, as a preplanned institutional blueprint that helped secure the Hamas agreement.”

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Standing against what he calls “selfish” motives of European leadership, Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says tolerance for mass illegal migration must win over the loud voices of short-sighted nationalism.

According to Sanchez, these EU regulations and rules against the dreams of sub-Saharan Africans are polarizing and stopping migrants from fulfilling their greatest aspirations.

Telegraph – via MSM – Pedro Sánchez has criticised “selfish” EU leaders after 22 European prime ministers and presidents attacked him for the sudden migrant surge in Ceuta.

Spain’s prime minister wrote a letter to the heads of the EU institutions after Italy and France ramped up border controls in response to the 60,000 Moroccan migrants who stormed the Spanish enclave in North Africa.

[…] “In the current international context, the European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction,” wrote Mr Sánchez, one of the few remaining socialist leaders in the EU, as he called for an emergency meeting.

He criticised those who “have chosen to attack Spain and to call for its temporary exclusion from the Schengen Area”.

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According to the announcements: ♦ Hamas agrees to gradually surrender weapons in exchange for Israeli troop withdrawal, under a phased plan announced by Donald Trump. ♦ Verification & Oversight: A verification committee will monitor disarmament and troop withdrawal, with weapons stored under a new Palestinian administration. ♦ International Mediation: Agreement brokered by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the US-led Board of Peace, aiming to enable Gaza reconstruction and humanitarian access.

PRESIDENT TRUMP – Via Truth Social – “Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.

This agreement is a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people. At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks.

This is a major milestone in the implementation of the Trump 20-Point Plan. The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases. As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become one of the most controversial figures in Israeli politics for discussion within the U.S.  Support for the Netanyahu government has eroded during his terms in office. Netanyahu blaming social media for the drop in support is not a good defense.  Opinion within the United States has become highly polarized in the past two years.

During an interview with ABC News, Prime Minister Netanyahu answers questions about Israel’s position in the ongoing conflict with Iran as well as Netanyahu’s recent visit with President Trump to discuss regional challenges.

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Senator Lindsey Graham was having a documentary about his life and political efforts made at the time he died.  The biographical outline is scheduled to be released in the future [CITATION]. However, the Wall Street Journal was granted some excerpts of the recent filming.

In a rather telling part of the storyline, Senator Graham notes on his goal to eliminate Iran, he needed to work with Marco Rubio because Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in conflict to his intent.

Wall Street Journal – […] Holder is now distilling hundreds of hours of raw camera footage for a documentary currently titled “Lindsey’s Game,” which he said he wants to release in the coming months. Graham agreed to it, saying he wanted people to understand his long tenure in the Senate and hopefully inspire others to work in government. Graham repeatedly told the crew how “cool this was,” Holder said.

“He would call what this was ‘a game,’” Holder said, describing how Graham told him how bizarre he thought it was that a senator from South Carolina has a closer relationship with the Saudi Arabian leader than anyone in a Democratic or Republican administration.

The crew also filmed Graham as he talked in March with Jake Sullivan, who was national security adviser under President Joe Biden, about the challenges of working with the Trump administration on Middle East negotiations.

​“I can’t do it with Jared, and I can’t do it with Witkoff. They’re just too conflicted. It’s gotta be Rubio,” he said to Sullivan, referring to Trump’s primary envoys in the negotiations, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his longtime friend Steve Witkoff, and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio.

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The suspect who drove a van into a crowded gay-pride celebration was shot and killed by police following a manhunt. Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours after the attack in downtown Berlin. {SOURCE}

KNOWN WOLF -The background of 21-year-old terrorist Abdul Ballout is a case study in failure by European authorities.  Ballout previously travelled to Lebanon in 2025 to join ISIS in Syria.  He was identified by German authorities as an ISIS terrorist and arrested in Lebanon where he served three months in prison and was returned to Germany.

Abdul Ballout was arrested at the Berlin airport upon return and was convicted in May of this year for preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state, as well as publishing Islamic State propaganda on his Instagram account and other charges.  He was sentenced to 1 year, 10-months in prison but the sentence was suspended for time served; he was released from custody.

(Via Associated Press) – BERLIN (AP) — The suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack that left one person dead and 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said.

Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours after the attack in downtown Berlin. Berlin prosecutors said the suspect had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group. (read more)

The ironic aspect to this particular attack is the cultural sensitivity of his victims.  Abdul Ballout killed the same people who march in the streets to protect Islamists from the consequences of their ideology.

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A white van drove into a crowd of the alphabet supporters at the big gay pride event in Berlin, Germany.  At least one person is killed with many more reported as injured.  Police are looking for the suspect who drove away.

Berlin AP — A van slammed into people gathered for Berlin’s famed LGBTQ+ event on Saturday, killing one person, injuring at least 15 others and prompting police to call off the celebrations and a concert in the German capital hours after they had begun.

Police said some of the victims had life-threatening injuries. Firefighters, ambulances and event emergency staffers were attending to the victims.

In a post on X, police called on everyone to leave the site of the event immediately. According to police, a white van had driven into the Tiergarten park, which is next to the route that the pride march had passed along earlier, and hit several people before colliding with a tree. Police could not say how many officers had been deployed to the scene but that it was “definitely a lot of police.” (read more)

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There is a level of no-so-subtle pretense within this messaging from President Trump that is not good.

As noted in this Truth Social message, President Trump notes it is unlikely that people around Chairman Xi and people around President Putin would be providing military, logistics, targeting or weapons support for Iran for the same reason President Trump is not providing military, logistics, targeting or weapons support to Ukraine.

TRUTH SOCIAL – “President Xi, at our recent meeting in Beijing, China, told me that he would not, under any circumstances, give or sell Weapons to the Islamic Republic of Iran — And that statement included Chinese Companies. Considering our relationship, I take him at his word and, besides, l am doing him very big favors, also.

Likewise, President Putin, despite the horrible War going on in Ukraine (The relationship remains, as it does with President Zelenskyy), told me that he would not sell Weapons to Iran. He understands that I do not sell Weapons to Ukraine, but to NATO Countries. They pay full price, and how those Weapons are distributed, I have no idea.

Therefore, two major Countries that people speak of often in terms of Iran are, in my opinion, not participating. If they did, it would be very bad for them — Certainly not in their best interests. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” ~President DONALD J. TRUMP

I strongly doubt non-pretending Russian President Vladimir Putin draws a distinction between the U.S. sending drone technology and missiles to Ukraine -vs- the U.S. sending drones and military technology to NATO Germany for forwarding to Ukraine.

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